SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 4 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The General Secretary for Infrastructures of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Xavier Flores, and the General Director of Highways of MITMA, Juan Pedro Fernández Palomino, visited today Wednesday the works of the new road in progress between Puerto Naos and Tazacorte, on the island of La Palma, which is meeting the deadlines and it is estimated that it can be put into service at the end of April of this year.
On this visit they have been accompanied by the Government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana; the special commissioner for the Reconstruction of the island of La Palma, Héctor Izquierdo, the Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sebastián Franquis, and the Vice President of the Cabildo de La Palma and Minister of Infrastructure, Borja Perdomo, among other representatives of the administrations involved.
During the visit, the Secretary General highlighted the singularity of the work, one of the most noteworthy at a technical level of those currently being managed by the Ministry. In this sense, he has commented that the work “constitutes a real challenge, building a road on a rock with such a high temperature, which makes it a true laboratory of solutions.” In addition, he has reiterated the Government’s commitment to restore lost connectivity in this part of the island as soon as possible.
DESCRIPTION OF THE EMERGENCY ACTION
The emergency action consists of building a new road between Puerto Naos and the junction with the LP-215 road in Tazacorte, which will allow the road connection to be reestablished on the western slope of the island of La Palma, affected by the volcanic eruption.
This is a 3.9-kilometre stretch of conventional road with a project speed of 70 kilometers per hour. The cross section of the highway, of a single carriageway with one lane in each direction, has lanes of 3.50 meters and shoulders of 1.50 meters. This new road crosses the volcanic lava flows ejected by the volcano, since approximately half of the section runs over them.
About an investment of approximately 38 million euros, approximately 11 million have already been executed, as of December 23, 2022.
This is a very unique work due to the high temperatures maintained by the material that will serve as the foundation for the new road. For this reason, among other activities, in May 2022 the General Directorate of Highways signed an agreement with the Higher Center for Scientific Research (CSIC) for the use of the cooling maps prepared by the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME ) necessary for the works.
In addition, in June 2022 a general action protocol was signed between Mitma and the Department of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, which creates a working group to coordinate the measures to restore infrastructure in the network. of roads in La Palma affected by the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, and which monitors the execution of this important work to restore the communication route on the western slope of the island.
ADDENDUM Nº2 TO THE AGREEMENT ON ROADS
As a sign of the central government’s commitment to the Government of the Canary Islands in terms of roads, it should be noted that in December 2022 addendum No. 2 to the 2018 agreement was signed.
In this addendum, the financing to be provided by the Mitma in various road actions on the islands is increased, in order to assume the financing deficit derived from the 2006 agreement in the part that was pending execution at the end of 2022. Therefore, the 2018 agreement goes from the current 1,200 million euros to some 1,473 million to be executed until the year 2027.
In addition, in the aforementioned addendum the annuities are redistributed to adapt them to the new execution forecasts and the denominations of the works subject to the Agreement are modified to adapt them to the correct denomination according to the applicable regional regulations on highways.
